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Just out of interest... Is there any recycled stock footage that would require us to believe in a variable-height bridge?

I mean, the shot from the rear that reveals the, um, lack of balls is from such an angle that the bridge height is not an issue. OTOH, the side shot that shows the older bridge and the nacelle spikes is most prominently seen in "Mirror, Mirror" where it depicts a wholly different ship. Is there another reuse of the side shot elsewhere in TOS? Probably at least half a dozen people here know the exact details on this like the back of their hand...

As a little kid watching TOS reruns, I used to wonder about this. I thought maybe the balls were hollow covers that would perhaps rotate up into a hidden slot exposing the 'vents' for when the ship used it's warp engines.

Twently years wiser and...it's stock footage reused from the pilot

Yup, I thought pretty much the same thing as a kid. The spheres were used for orbital velocity, while the vents were seen when Enterprise sailed off at the end of the ep.

Yup. Ditto for me as well........

It's funny how as a kid, one can easily recon discrepancies like these into a simple & feasible explanation.

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This topic begs an obvious question: If they were planning to reuse fx shots from the pilot, why did they make such noticable changes to the Enterprise

When the two pilot episodes were filmed, nobody knew if the show would even make it to NBC's primetime schedule. I'm sure the re-use of FX shots from the pilots was anything but "planned." It just worked out that way for economy's sake.

Location: In selfless service to fandom, on the road to becoming a Star Trek trivia god...

Re: Nacelle rear spheres: conjectures.

I don't think they ever really planned to air "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Not unusual, since a lot of shows never air their pilots; major cast changes are quite typical between a pilot and regular production. Star Trek just didn't have enough ready-to-air episodes ready to avoid using that pilot, and had to incorporate the even more divergent first pilot into a two-part clip show just to be able to make their airdates. Reusing stock effects footage is small potatoes by comparison.

The show couldn't even get the necessary effects for the title sequence, so they were forced to repurpose shots done for the pilots. The model was modified, I'm sure, with the idea that the library shots they would build would not have to include the pilot effects. But it didn't happen that way.

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